OMG

I open the door and there is a young woman standing there. I just met her less than an hour ago while sitting on the steps in front of my house talking to Angelina. I invite her in. She slips off her sandals and steps into my house.

She says, “Come out on your balcony”.

I follow her onto the balcony and she says, “See the guy in the red and white stripped shirt?”

“Yes, I see him.”

“Have you seen him before?”

“No, I haven’t”.

“That’s my brother. He wants to meet you. He’s shy and said I had to come here for him. I asked him why he wouldn’t do it, but he wouldn’t answer. He likes you.”

He is maybe twenty-five years old. I am almost at a loss for words, but I’m able to say, “Honey, I’m a little old for him”.

The ridiculousness of the conversation went on for ten minutes. Huh?

No more nights....PLEASE!!

I like music and that's a good thing. Music is played morning, noon and night here. It's usually one of the most enjoyable aspects of village life. I've discovered new artists that I may have never known about if I hadn't come to this village. The problem is right now....they only play two songs. Please someone, make them stop!

E-Simple

Before I left for Peace Corps, I had a house phone and a cell phone. I had internet and satellite television. I had internet access on my cell phone and an answering service for my house phone. I had email accounts at three colleges plus two private email accounts. Passwords? I had so many passwords and variations of passwords it was dizzying. All this is designed to make my life more efficient and productive . . . well, sometimes it did, but often it was a source of stress and frustration. Dropped calls, internet interruptions, huge e-bills, forgotten passwords and contracts are things that make my life less efficient and more difficult. And, lost phones? Well, I needed more than one phone to find the one I misplaced or lost; this wasn’t a luxury; it was a requirement!

There are electronic gadgets for everything and anyone who knows me knows that I love e-gadgets . . . when they work and when I can find them. Three IPods? Of course! One summons WIFI and another is a perfect size for the gym. The third is needed in case the other two fail.

Of course, a machine is necessary that converts VHF to DVD format. How else would I be able to convert DVD to other formats that are more easily stored on my computer? And then I need the remote control for one of my three laptops that doesn’t have one built into the system. And the projector? Well, how else would I show films at Los Angeles Harbor College . . . not to mention the nights we pop some corn, rearrange furniture and have a neighborhood movie night. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.

I longed for the days before we had so much E-stuff. When I was a young child, we had one black and white television. My father bought one of the first remote controls. It was the size of our living room sofa and was connected to the television by a cable that a small child could crawl through. We had one phone hung on the kitchen wall and often when we picked it up we heard voices on the receiver. Four families shared a party-line. When I lived in Thousand Oaks, only five numbers were required to dial a friend on my pink princess phone. When I was a child, my family got on fine without all the e-toys we find on the store shelves today. Barbie Dolls and imagination were the only requirement for a girl growing up in the 50s.

So when I decided to volunteer for Peace Corps I was ready to e-simplify and rid my life of all this e-stuff. Sort of. My first thought was fear and then panic set in. I wondered what life would be like without my e-stuff. Ah, back to a simple life. Would I be able to do it? I began an internet research to find a list of things to bring. Then I learned that although Saint Lucia is a poor country, most houses have electricity and indoor plumbing and internet is easily available.

Humm…. I must bring an IPod. I learned that most Peace Corps Volunteers bring a laptop with them. I guess I should bring speakers too so that I can enjoy music. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I can download my pictures on Flixter and use some of them for my blog.

When I got here, I learned cable TV is the norm. I’ve been assigned more passwords and codes adding to the repertoire of endless number, letter and character combinations to remember. Peace Corps arranged for a special rate for volunteer cell phones. For some reason it’s necessary to have a house phone with internet. One cell phone, however, isn’t really enough. There are two cell phone carriers and it’s expensive to make cross-over calls. Many people have two pre-paid cell phones which saves them money. It turns out the house phone is also necessary because it’s cost-prohibitive to call landlines with cell phones and vice-versa. The phone system here is very complicated.

I’m standing firm on this point. I’m drawing the line in the sand. I will not have an answering machine for my house phone! As a Peace Corps Volunteer I must make some sacrifice. So much for e-simplification.

And the winner is . . .

It was a long time ago. I was probably fourteen years old; a freshman in high school. I don’t remember what made me walk into that room. I wasn’t aware of much that was happening in my high school beyond the boys and parties. I must have seen a flyer around campus. It makes sense that I would be interested.

From a young age I strived to be a secretary, unaware of any potential beyond that. Choices for girls were limited. Only one choice was expected: to get married and have children. I was taught that girls went to college to find a suitable husband. I secretly wanted a career, but didn’t dare tell anyone.

My father was well connected. When I graduated from high school I was given choices based on my father’s ability to find employment for me: become an actress...hardly; an airline hostess...I'm too short; get a free ride at the University of the Pacific...I don't think so; work in accounts payable at my dad’s company for minimum wage, driving over an hour each way to and from work in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Ah, that's the one! I saw it as the pathway to my ultimate destination; to become a secretary just like Susie on the television program Private Secretary. I wanted to work for a man just like the one she worked for – Mr. Sands. Susie was so sophisticated. She wore pretty hats and gloves that she shopped for during her lunch hour.

So, having chosen this lofty goal, it doesn’t surprise me that I walked into a classroom after school to join Junior Achievement, an organization designed to teach business to students. We set up a company and I was appointed the Finance Officer. We sold stock and made candles for the holiday season. My father had yet another item to drag to work and peddle to unsuspecting victims as retaliation for the things dad bought over the years from their children.

During the 2008-2009 school year in Saint Lucia, I have been working on the other end of Junior Achievement . . . facilitating the children in the Village Secondary School to learn business practices and hustle their Junior Achievement goods upon students, teachers and other unsuspecting bystanders.

Elaine, my friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, is here to help develop Junior Achievement as a sustainable activity to teach children business skills. She recruited me and other volunteers to help her with individual schools while she worked the larger island program. The semester is coming to an end and the businesses that were created are being dissolved. Stockholders are reaping the profits from their original investment of $5EC per share. The financial records have been completed and submitted.

As Elaine takes a deep breath children from all over the island are arriving in buses to attend a celebration that recognizes the schools that have achieved the best in profit, records keeping, company of the year and highest achiever…as well as the big one the Governor General’s Award for Innovation, Creativity and Originality. There were plenty of dignitaries to recognize and support the children. And there was entertainment; The Trio Brothers, a group of three boys from one of the schools performed.

My girls patiently awaited the winning announcements. We didn’t win the big one and certainly didn’t win for most profit, not when our profit was only $1.20EC per share. No, we didn’t get recognized for company of the year either. Our student didn’t get highest achiever, and we didn’t get first or second place for records keeping. Then they announced third place Records Keeping; and the winner is . . .

We proudly posed at the front of the room with trophy in hand whispering "good job" to one another. That winds up another project on the island. As we walked out of the building towards the bus, Mrs. Sami, the teacher I helped, declared next year our goal is to get the big trophy!

Unknown Territory Explored

It’s Monday and I need to be in Castries by 7:00 p.m. I’ve cleaned the house and prepared as much as I can. At 5:00 I head downstairs and toward the main road to catch a bus for the 45 minute ride. It should be easy to catch a bus because it’s the end of the day and drivers will be out in force looking to fill their buses to maximize their earnings.

I arrived a little before seven. Ah, enough time to go to Super J to buy a couple of bottles of wine. I pick two bottles of red and head for the Taxi Stand where I will meet Lenny. I am using this opportunity to stock up on some things I need – Mega J, here I come! Paper towels, toilet paper, large bags of coffee and drinks; oh, and two new pillows and a cucumber so large that Lenny and another man are making jokes about it. I leave them behind and go about my shopping.

The shopping spree empties out my pockets, but I have enough of some things to carry me to close of service. We pack up his taxi and head to Vigi where my sister, Janyn, will arrive at 9 p.m. She will be here for five full days and I have a packed schedule ahead. I know I will be exhausted at the end of her trip and I can only assume she will need a vacation after this vacation as well.

Her plane arrives and we wait more than an hour for her to get through customs. I’ve learned by now that nothing is easy and patience makes life seem easier. We pile into Lenny’s van and he drives through the Morne stopping at Dennery to look at the lovely view. Janyn is very photogenic, isn’t she? After an hour we arrived home and brought the bounty of goods acquired at Mega J up the stairs and into the house, along with the backpack she brought. Inside her bag were so many goodies; a new pair of flipflops, Lemon Luna Bars, Bagels, Mounting Tape to hang a new picture of my granddaughter – and a New York Pizza. Yum!

We opened a bottle of wine and stayed up late talking about what we would do while she was here. The days are packed and will go by fast.

A village tour which included Vierge Point and Sandy Beach with drinks at the Reef were on the agenda. The banana daiquiri was so good, it sent us searching for a blender to replicate the frosty drink at home.

Bus rides are an experience that most Peace Corps Volunteers like to share with guests. Loud music is a constant and swerving around vehicles can be nerve-wracking. One of the biggest surprises on the island is that Country Western is extremely popular. One explanation is that the culture is "story-telling" and so that explains their love for the stories told in this type of music. It's unfortunate that the wind overtook the sound in the video and the Country Western Music cannot be heard.

The Ziplines in Dennery were at the top of our list and we weren’t sorry. Zipping through the forest high above the trees at 30 MPH was great fun and walking up to the waterfall topped it off.

(If you are at work, I'd advise you to turn the sound down before starting this video).

After cooling off we hiked back to the road and waited…and waited for a bus. Catching a bus in Dennery is challenging and not a sport that I like to participate in. Finally, after some time, an empty taxi took pity on us and stopped, charging us only bus fare. It was there that Janyn left her camera; lost forever in the backseat of an unknown taxi.

Another volunteer had family visiting and we went along for an arts and crafts tour of the island they had planned. We stopped at Choiseul, a village known for its crafts where I purchased a doll made by a blind person for my granddaughter. After a leisurely drink at Ladera Resort and a quick purchase of purses made of wood, we stopped at Zaka Totum and Mask Studio where the artist creates amazing masks using recycled wood. Of course I couldn’t resist and picked up a simply designed mask made of Blue Mahoe, Jamaica's National Tree. Later we stopped for a taste of Cassava Bread before we headed up north to the art gallery in Castries and then to the batik and wood carving studios on the Morne.

Finally, we went to Llewellyn Xavier’s home in Cap Estate. Sometimes it amazes me how much access a Peace Corps Volunteer has. Among the locations of Llewellyn’s permanent collections are the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He’s worked with John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Jean Genet and others. His work is amazing. This is one stop where I did not make a purchase.

We sipped Rum Punch and ate fish cake while listening to him tell stories. Later we drank the juice from chilled coconuts that were picked that day in our honor. His current project is to conceptualize the environment to awaken world consciousness of the destruction the earth is experiencing. He had a box brought out with t-shirts with environmental messages that he designed. We each picked one and then signed his guest book.

The next day we attended the July 4^th BBQ at the Peace Corps Country Director’s home where we met a group of Saint Lucia Volunteers who served in the late 1960s. This was their forty year reunion.

We went to Pigeon Point and hiked to Fort Rodney to enjoy the amazing view that pans the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It’s an old lookout complete with cannons that the English used to fight the French. The island changed hands fourteen times before the English prevailed. Saint Lucia gained independence in 1979 and just celebrated its thirty year anniversary.

Janyn left, more than likely exhausted from the packed days. I watched her plane take off while sitting on the beach nearby. Oh, the camera? Well, the driver of the taxi figured out that it belonged to the two white women he rescued on the side of the road in Dennery. He remembered the village where he dropped us off. He has a friend in my village. We are easily described and that friend knows me. The camera has been returned and is ready to ship back to my sister. Humm, do you think that would happen in Los Angeles?

Another Goodbye

It’s been amazing, but I know you have to go. It’s been fun, but I know your adventure has ended. I will think about you, but I know you will remain strong. I will miss you, but I know you are in good hands. When I think of you one word will come to mind . . . strength.

When I think about the road we traveled together, I think about the long days in training – and the days you weren’t there, but were hospitalized with Dengue Fever. I think about a special Coal Pot dinner, Christmas Eve at the Cathedral and Christmas day in your village. I think about a warm Thanksgiving Day walking the roads of Dennery.

I will fondly remember our slumber parties, baking cakes, walking to Vierge Point, the Dennery Charity Walk. I will also remember hiding under a quickly made shelter on the beach at Laborie during an unexpected rain.

And, oh yes, who could forget your green thumb and spinning lettuce in your semi-automatic washing machine.

More recently, I will smile when I think about large flying roaches and the imagined possibility of ugly rats staring down from the top of a sofa. Whose idea was that? Oh yes, that secret location, known by just the three of us was your idea!

Now that you’ve made your decision, you are on a path of recovery and a land with plentiful toilet paper, while I’m left to anticipate fending off the next two pound flying cockroach because you are no longer here to save me from this fate.

I love you my friend and you will remain in my heart. Take care, stay strong and keep in touch. Until the next time our paths cross, stay safe and be happy! I’ll see you again on “the other side”.

Monday Morning, Part 2

Brenda drives into Castries, getting us there just in time to board the bus which is sitting in front of the Ministry of Social Transformation Office. The bus will take us to Canaries. Although it’s not a great distance, the road is winding and the driver must honk to alert people coming from the opposite direction…I’m used to it now. We drive through Anse Le Rey and into Canneries. As we head up the road to our destination, we pass the best bread bakery on the island. Everyone begins shouting at the driver at the same time. The volume is high and the sounds are demanding. “Driver, you must stop here on the way back so we can buy bread”, and the driver nods. I don’t think he wants to argue with fourteen demanding women.

I like women’s conferences. I have been preparing material for this conference workshop for the past three weeks. I am here to facilitate a six hour workshop for representatives of the Associated Country Women of the World. They are holding a week long regional conference in Saint Lucia. Women leaders from many different countries are here to learn, reflect, and gain new insights and tools to create and build new visions for the future of their communities and themselves. I am here to deliver this information as a “train-the-trainer” exercise.

As I walk in the room, I see the television cameras being set up. There is a table in the front of the room with crafts for sale. Tables are arranged in a U-shape and Saint Lucia colored cloth is placed over the tables. There are dozens of extra chairs behind the U-shaped tables. The wall has a large banner on it announcing the organizations that made this conference possible. It also pictures the Saint Lucian Flag.

At the front of the room is a table filled with craft items for sale which some of women have brought with them.

I’ve been nervous because I didn’t know much about the audience, but after the bus ride I’m feeling quite confident. The women are leaders in their communities. They come with good ideas and skills and lots of passion. The World President, Dato Ursula Goh, comes from Malaysia. She gave me her card and invited me to look her up if I get to her part of the world. She explained that the organization has a membership of nine million and is located in seventy countries, including the United States. The annual world conference will be held in Arkansas next year.

In the end I spent the day with some fifty wonderful women. I developed the workshop to include video material, activities, a workbook and discussion. They learned how to strengthen and lead their organizations and I learned about this incredible fellowship of women which I intend to stay connected to. I hope they gained as much as I did from this day.